ELECTRONIC VISUALISATION AND THE ARTS EVA London 2009

REGISTRATION OPEN
Catch the Early Bird rates before the end of May!
The outstanding EVA London programme is online now.

EVA London 2009
Monday 6th - Wednesday 8th July 2009
British Computer Society, London WD2E 7HA

EVA London 2009 will debate the issues, discuss trends and demonstrate
the digitial possibilities in:
• Reconstructive archaeology
* Digital history
* Virtual museology
• Digital arts concepts and practice
• Immersive environments
• Digital performance
• Computer music

If you are interested in the new technologies in the cultural sector –if you are an artist, policy maker, manager, researcher, practitioner,audience evaluator or educator – this conference is for you.

Registration and programme
http://www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/

Altermodern + ism from Nicolas Bourriaud

Ancient and modern: Gustav Metzger’s Liquid Crystal Environment. The 82-year-old artist has been hailed as the “godfather” of the altermodern by the inventor of the term, Nicolas Bourriaud

via

(The Tate Triennial)...an international show that attempts to define the new art of the post-economic apocalypse, christening it “altermodern”.

It is a new world of “wandering in time, space and mediums”. “Altermodernity,” Bourriaud continues, “arises out of negotiations between different agents from different cultures and geographical locations.”Artists, by this reckoning, have become nomads, a mobile community of outsiders within a vast globalised society, choosing their images, like words, from roughly the same visual language. It’s the next stage, Bourriaud claims, for civilisation after postmodernism, and artists who mocked its own claims to greatness (the people who canned their own poo, put donkeys in art galleries or exhibited their smoked cigarettes).

(Altermodern is at Tate Britain (020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk) until 26 April. Open daily 10am-6pm (first Friday of every month until 10pm). Admission £7.80, concs available.)

The Optronica Festival

I cannot stretch my holiday and what a pity to miss Optronica. See a report from Shift. Here are some photo of what I had been looking so forward to, EBN Emergency Broadcast Network on top, Peter Greenaway on the middle. Reactive table follows.They all looked fabulous..
some juice: "....This was followed by cinematic luminary Peter Greenaway, who showed off his new live cinema performace, the Tulse Luper ‘stories’, an hour-long show about Uranium (yes, the radioactive substance), and a man’s journey with it. This was depicted by showing the contents of exactly 92 suitcases containing an odd assortment of objects, from ink, blood and a rotting corpse, to pairs of womens underwear. True to form, Greenaway didn’t give too much away in the form of narrative or a coherent meaning, but as usual, the imagery was beautifully rich. What was especially wonderful was the interactive device he used, a touch screen interface which he slid his fingers over to trigger the visuals, departing from the familiar performance-behind-laptop scenario.

Over in the smaller theatre, another live presentation was taking place that would be a shame not to mention – ‘Reactable’, by the Barcelona-based Music Technology Group. Word has it that the legendary Bob Moog had a hand in this piece, although it’s just as plausible to imagine Captain Kirk and Spock playing with it on board the Starship Enterprise. Transparent plastic shapes were shifted around a circular back-lit table, each one triggering a sound relative to its position in relation to other shapes, and eminating a light as they were placed on the surface. It’s got to be one of the most intriguing interactive AV experiments ever undertaken, as a kind of futuristic music-machine which has implications for how we can interact with sound and light simultaneously. And more importantly, it succeeded as a performative piece, because the audience could easily recognise how the sounds were being generated.

‘Reactable’ was performed at various times throughout the festival at the Optronica Lounge, not far from the screening cinema. It provided a relaxed space for visitors to hnag about and experience a range of interactive installations with a handful of couches and beanbags thrown in for comfort. ,,,

...The night’s performers included techno pioneer Speedy J and US collaborator and film-maker Scott Pagano, a live set from veterans Emergency Broadcast Network, and a selection of local DJs and VJs. It was reportedly a real gathering of London’s AV scene, along with a healthy handful of European and international AV artists, and a rare occurance in what is a relatively small scene...."

Peter Greenaway in Optronica

If you are interested in VJ and visual music in the tradition of Oskar Fischinger, you should follow addictive TV's new festival-Optronica 14-18 March 2007 in London. This year's line-up includes the World premières of new shows from a fantastic range of artists including Fred Deakin & Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly, prolific designer and musician Trevor Jackson, Austrian electronic music pioneer Christian Fennesz with renowned New York video artist Charles Atlas, plus the UK première of Peter Greenaway's Tulse Luper VJ performance and a special World Cinema remix set from current #1 AV artists Addictive TV. Also on the bill are Japanese audiovisual artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, the brilliant Berlin-based Rechenzentrum with a brand new AV show and the highly innovative Spanish team behind Reactable. Saturday 17th, London's ICA hosts an audiovisual club night headlined by Speedy J & Scott Pagano and, just confirmed, a rare and exclusive audiovisual set from EBN's Gardner Post and Brian Kane.

Plus screenings, installations and illustrated talks - including from Cindy Keefer from the LA based Center for Visual Music, Optronica will deliver an incredible selection of aural and visual treats for both connoisseurs and newcomers alike.

Presented as part of the PlayStation® Season, Optronica is organised by artists/producers Addictive TV and new-media curators Cinefeel and in partnership with the British Film Institute.

London 2 : The Royal Academy of Arts Presents 'USA Today'

It cost 9 pound to go in and does it worth it? Well, if you are are dying to see one or two famous work, ok but the famous works do not mean good work, so you decide.


LONDON - An exhibition featuring new work from The Saatchi Gallery by forty young American artists, will be brought together at the Royal Academy of Arts in USA Today. Over 150 new works of art will be presented including paintings, sculptures and photographs. The exhibition will run from 6 October – 4 November 2006 at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens.

USA Today features a new generation of American artists, together with other young artists who have moved from Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world to work in the United States. The subjects of these recently made art works, most of which are no more than two years old, focus on the artists’ views of world events and America’s place in global society. Many of the artists and their works have already attracted attention through their political references.

Peter Fischli & David Weiss / Flowers & Questions at Tate Modern

Photo from http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Peter_Fischli-David_Weiss.html


While we are in London, we saw this favourite show. Highly recommended, full of wisdom, humorous and contemporary.

"The first major retrospective of Swiss artists Peter Fischli (b1952) and David Weiss (b1946) to take place in the UK will go on display at Tate Modern in October 2006. The artists’creative partnership began in the late 1970s and this exhibition will span nearly three decades of their collaborative practice bringing together more than twenty significant bodies of work."